Bonding of PEX water piping

[radiopet]

Re: Bonding of PEX water piping

Originally posted by pierre:
On the load side of the cold water meter (if the meter is located inside the building), you are not grounding, but bonding the water piping system. As in this thread, the water piping system is plastic and would not require bonding as per 250.104.
As Bob has mentioned, there is no real need to bond to the cold and hot water stub pipes from a basin (if the water piping "system" is plastic), how likely is it they will become energized?

Would you require the water stubs (if metallic) from a jacuzzi (hydromassage tub) to be bonded, even if the water piping system is plastic?

Pierre

How about 680-73 I think would cover this...hmmm....now I would think since these units have to be on GFCI when you bond all metal parts of the system together it would take care of this ruling and would not require a tie back to the water supply system if non-metalic like PEX.

As for the waterpipe of enterance into the dwelling is really 99 % of the time in dwelling units the meter is outside the dwelling so the main reason we BOND is required in 250 as part fo the GES as listed in 250-50 ( the 5 and 10 rule applies on this ) but basically I guess what the AHJ in our area is saying is that it is serving as the GES...and nothing more when it comes to past the PEX point.

[ January 09, 2005, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: radiopet ]

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Bonding of PEX water piping

I think it boils down to the generalistic nature of 250 lends itself to misinterpretation.

Couple that with inspectors whose primary background and focus isn't electrical, and you've got a recipe for well-intentioned but unsupported requirements.

If I had understood the problem then as well as I do now (i.e. 250.104 being the source of the request) I would have mentioned it to the inspectors at once. The two I'm thinking of are nice guys, very approachable. Totally different jurisdictions.

My bad for not knowing the code better!

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Bonding of PEX water piping

NEC-2005 680.74 Bonding. All metal piping systems and all grounded metal parts in contact with the circulating water shall be bonded together using a copper bonding jumper, insulated, covered, or bare, not smaller than 8 AWG solid.

Most of the recirculating plumbing I've seen is PVC. The way it's worded, the standard plumbing hot/cold handles don't need bonding.

 

[radiopet]

Re: Bonding of PEX water piping

george..I hear ya....in fact I hate reading a BOOK in general so it always amazes my wife that I sit and read the code...lol...go figure..no one can master this thing....the good thing about it is we atleast have the book to refer to...

Imagine if we did not...and it was all left up to the AHJ....when you are right many don't have a big electrical background...in my case the guy was a awesome builder background and little electrical so once we got past the issue we became good friends.